Mention the name Miami, and the moniker “Magic City” often leaps from the tongues of residents, ad men and developers who are eager to tout the area’s cosmopolitan cachet. And for many businesses using the name, it’s often been a carpet ride to profits.
But does anyone hold the rights to the glitzy name?
The owner of Magic City Casino, West Flagler Associates, thinks so. It says it’s the rightful owner through trademarks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
In a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court, the company alleges that MCD Miami, the developers of the proposed Magic City Innovation District in Little Haiti, infringed rights and demands that they drop the Magic City label.
Paul George, a longtime resident historian for HistoryMiami, was surprised to hear about the dispute.
“I always thought ‘Magic City’ was something anybody could grab,” he said. “This is unreal. This is such great stuff. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”
He said the name dates back to Henry Flagler, the pioneering developer and railroad baron, who once asked a writer to pen a magazine story to help woo northerners to the swampy, mosquito-ridden region under development. It was the article that first referred to Miami as the “Magic City,” although the name was believed to have been “borrowed” from Birmingham, which called itself the Magic City of the South.
George said that as far back as the 1920s, the area earmarked for development by the innovation district was known as the “Magic City Tourist Camp.”
“Very typically you had trailers for tourists,” George said. “It was a stationary community. Trailers were permanent homes of the people.”
But Magic City Casino insists it holds the legal rights to the name because of its lengthy use of it since the business started in 2009.
“If you use a mark first, you own it, you have common law rights,” said Coral Gables attorney Leslie Lott, who represents the casino. “We’ve been using the name extensively for over a decade.”
The innovation district developers, she said, should have checked before they attached “Magic City” to their project’s name.
Aventura attorney Mark Stein, who represents MCD Miami, called the suit meritless and said his client plans a vigorous defense. In fact, he said, the developers registered the Magic City name for their business two years ago. When they filed papers with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the casino firm offered no objections.
“These companies are in completely different businesses and we don’t offer casino services,” he said. “If you go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website, you’ll find quite a few applications for Magic City.”
The Magic City Innovation District, which is in the midst of acquiring city approvals, covers 18 acres along Northeast Second Avenue from 60th to 64th Streets. It already has attracted commercial tenants such as an art gallery, marketing firm and technology company to occupy existing warehouse space.
But the public is already confused by the innovation district’s use of the name, the casino’s lawsuit says.
For example, callers seeking information about a December art exhibition in the Little Haiti district called the casino instead. And in another instance, an event manager scheduled to appear in a May panel discussion mistakenly said in an online posting that she would be appearing at the casino.
